Focus Of New Canadian Climate Plan - Avoid Plans Or Focusing On Climate

[hatrack]

OTTAWA - The Canadian government, under fire for dismissing the Kyoto protocol as unworkable, will next month unveil an environmental package that focuses on improving air quality, but says little about global warming, officials and activists say.

Although Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Canada has no chance of meeting its Kyoto targets for cutting greenhouse gases, polls show most Canadians back the treaty. The government's solution will therefore be to ignore Kyoto while trying to improve air quality and combat criticism that the Conservatives do not care about the environment.

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Environmental groups were briefed on the package last month, but said they received few firm details. Some expressed alarm at plans to coordinate climate change programs with the United States, which pulled out of Kyoto in 2001.

"Kyoto was not mentioned in any way... From a climate change perspective it was incredibly scary," said Dale Marshall of the David Suzuki Foundation. "They did not address greenhouse gases or climate change to any great extent... When they did talk about it they talked about targets that are in the 2025-2050 range, which is not the kind of timelines we need," he told Reuters.

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http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/38014/story.htm

[Buzz Clik]

1. Great. Our neighbors to the north have decided to emulate our government.